The terms that come up in DVSA paperwork, franchise agreements and software demos, each defined in two or three sentences and then explained in context.
An ADI is a driving instructor entered on the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) register of approved driving instructors. Registration is what allows an instructor to charge for car driving lessons, and it is granted only after three qualifying tests, a criminal records check and a fit and proper person assessment. It runs for four years, has to be renewed by the instructor personally, and is backed up by a DVSA standards check in which an examiner observes a real lesson with a real pupil.
ADI Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 are the three DVSA qualifying tests a candidate must pass to join the approved driving instructor register: a theory test, a test of driving ability and a test of instructional ability. Part 1 comes first, and Parts 2 and 3 must both be passed within two years of that pass or the whole process restarts. Parts 2 and 3 allow three attempts each, and Part 3 is marked on the same 51-point form that qualified instructors meet again at every standards check.
A block booking is a batch of driving lessons that a pupil pays for in advance in a single transaction, normally at a lower hourly rate than pay-as-you-go lessons, and then draws down over the following weeks. Because the money arrives before the teaching happens, the unused part of the block remains an obligation of the school until the lessons are taught.
A driving school franchise is a commercial arrangement in which a self-employed ADI pays a school a set fee, usually weekly, in return for pupil supply, branding and often a tuition car, while keeping the lesson income. The instructor's DVSA registration, standards check and professional obligations remain personal to them, because the register of approved driving instructors lists individuals.
The DVSA is the government agency that runs theory and practical driving tests in Great Britain and maintains the register of approved driving instructors. It sets the national standard for driver and rider training, carries out ADI standards checks, and publishes the test fees and booking rules every school works to.
DVSA publishes two national standards for category B driving, one describing what a safe driver must be able to do and one describing what a driver trainer must be able to do. Pupil progress recording is the practice of logging, lesson by lesson, how far a pupil has got against that syllabus, for example against the 27 skills and five progress levels of DVSA's optional "driver's record" form. No law obliges an ADI to keep such a record, although lesson planning and pupil reflection are marked competencies at the standards check.
The green badge is the certificate DVSA issues to a registered approved driving instructor (ADI). The pink badge is the trainee driving instructor licence, valid for six months, held by someone who has passed the ADI part 1 and part 2 tests and is working towards part 3. Both have to be shown in the windscreen while paid instruction is given.
PDI stands for potential driving instructor: someone part-way through the DVSA qualifying process who is not yet on the Approved Driving Instructor register. PDIs may teach paying pupils under a six-month trainee driving instructor licence granted once they have passed the ADI part 1 and part 2 tests and completed 40 hours of training. DVSA requires them to advertise as a trainee driving instructor.
The practical driving test is the DVSA on-road examination a pupil takes after the theory test to gain a full car licence. It runs to around 35 minutes of driving from a test centre and covers an eyesight check, two vehicle safety questions, one reversing exercise and 20 to 35 minutes of independent driving, with up to 15 driving faults allowed and any serious or dangerous fault ending in a fail. The fee is £62 on a weekday and £75 in the evening, at weekends or on bank holidays (GOV.UK, 6 September 2026).
Show me, tell me questions are the vehicle safety questions a DVSA examiner asks during the practical driving test. In the category B car test the pupil gets one "tell me" question at the start, before driving, and one "show me" question while driving, drawn from a published bank of 14 "tell me" and 7 "show me" questions. Getting one or both wrong costs a single driving fault; the current question set has applied since 4 December 2017.
The standards check is the DVSA assessment of a qualified driving instructor's ability to teach, normally taken once in every four-year registration period. An examiner watches a client-centred lesson with one of the ADI's own pupils for about 45 minutes and marks 17 competencies from 0 to 3 across lesson planning, risk management, and teaching and learning strategies. A total of 31 or more keeps the instructor on the ADI register, 30 or less is unsatisfactory, and three failed checks mean removal from the register and re-taking the ADI qualifying tests.
Test day car hire is the arrangement under which a candidate pays a driving school or ADI for the use of a tuition car at a booked DVSA practical test. A typical booking covers a warm-up lesson in the test area, the car for the test itself, and the instructor sitting in for the drive and the result if the pupil wants that.
The Highway Code is the Department for Transport's rulebook for road users in England, Scotland and Wales, published in full and free of charge on GOV.UK. Rules worded MUST or MUST NOT are legal requirements backed by named legislation; the remaining rules are advisory and may still be used in evidence in court proceedings under the Traffic Acts to establish liability. It is one of the three books the car theory test's multiple-choice questions are drawn from, and it is amended in place on GOV.UK, most recently on 22 October 2025.
The theory test is the DVSA's computer-based examination a learner must pass before taking the practical driving test. For car pupils it has two parts sat together: 50 multiple-choice questions with a pass mark of 43, and a hazard perception test of 14 video clips with a pass mark of 44 out of 75. The pass certificate number lasts two years, and the practical test has to be passed inside that window or the theory test is taken again (GOV.UK, checked September 2026).